a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Bits from Kevin O’Connor and Gordon Hayward Interviews

Kevin O’Connor** I, I think Coach Ty did a great job last year in maximizing the talent that we had. But we had some deficiencies and hopefully we’ve addressed some of those, you know, and hopefully our young players, like we talk about, internally getting better, and I, I believe we’ve added some pieces that, that will help us.

**On Raja Bell: Well, I think what we’ve agreed with in, in trying to keep everything out of, out of the newspaper, we’ve, you know, we’re continuing to, to, to ne–, to talk to Raja and, and he’s continuing to talk to, to, to us and we’ve agreed to kind of, and, and not talk about any of our discussions with other people. I think it’s fair to say that he would like to look at other things…we’ve, we’ve kind of tabled it and put it in, put it on hold.

**On Kevin Murphy: The nice thing is that I, I think he’s gonna get an opportunity, a little bit like we, we have had in the past, that he’s gonna be able to sit and watch a little bit and hopefully grow.

** Gordon [Hayward] and Enes [Kanter] were both in the gym this morning. So, and, they both look physically good. One’s gotten bigger and one’s, you know, you know, thinned out a little bit. So it’s, it’s been, I think it’s been a good summer for them.

In typical KOC fashion, he offered up a “No comment” when asked to clarify which player (Gordon or Enes) got bigger and which thinned out. OK, that didn’t really happen.

Gordon Hayward**On his offseason: Took about three or four weeks off and didn’t really do much. Didn’t really touch a basketball, and it was difficult to do that and I was definitely itching to get back at it. And then just worked out in Indy for the most part.

**On playing with the U.S. Select Team: That was great. You know, it was just good for Derrick [Favors] and I to be able to go out there and, you know, kind of put our names in the hat there, and I think both of us one day want to eventually be on the Olympic team, so that’s definitely a start for us, and, you know, what better way to improve your game than playing against the best players in the world….it was definitely a fun experience.

**On P3: A lot of the guys, almost all of them, probably made it out to Santa Barbara, you know, once or twice. We were all there at different times. You know, I took some online, I took an online class and I was taking a class at Butler this summer and so I wasn’t able to go there, I think they had eight or nine of them all there at the same time, so I had to, I wasn’t able to go [with everyone else]. I had to go the next week. But I was there when Enes was there and Big Al [Jefferson] was there, and both of them looked good. I know Enes looks really good right now. He’s dropped some weight and gotten more toned.

Hearty congratulations to Mr. Hayward for winning the “Understatement of the Year” award for “He’s gotten more toned.”

**On autographs: I’ve been asked to sign someone’s baby before and that was, I couldn’t do it…strict no signing of body parts policy.

Gordon Hayward: Unintentional Dirty Quote Machine (UDQM)** Gordon Monson: Does your body tell you, “OK, I’m ready to go again. I needed rest, but now it’s go time”? Hayward: I needed to get a little bit of rest. I think we all do. We go for so long and so hard.

** On the biggest adjustment from college to the pros: Just kinda knowing how the game’s changed, and how different from college, and where to pick your spots, and when to go and get yours, and when to not.

** When we see a guy go down and get hurt, you know, that hurts all of us. (1280)

Related

One note: it’s cool that in the middle of the never ending praise of Ty, KOC actually took the blame for the team’s shortcomings last season. I mean, at least it’s a sign that his trust in Ty is more than a PR move, and that if he and Dennis make a better job, he trusts Ty will actually do his part.